Network systems are used in a variety of applications and are increasing in size and complexity. Network systems are typically used for hosting and distributing content. For example, network systems are used in data centers for hosting and distributing Internet content, in enterprises for hosting and distributing application content used within an organization, and in broadcasting for hosting and distributing audio and video content.
Known network systems interconnect a plurality of application servers that host and distribute various types of content through a network fabric. Application servers distribute content through the network fabric to other application servers associated with that content. For example, an e-commerce website may contain one application server for processing transactions through the website and another application server for hosting the website content, such as the homepage. The application server for processing transactions may distribute content to the application server hosting the homepage in order to present transaction information to the end user interacting with the website.
Application servers connected to a network fabric may comprise a plurality of virtual application servers for greater resource efficiency; however, this approach often increases the number of management points within a network system. For example, a separate network management point may be required to manage only virtual application servers. Physical application servers and virtual application servers may be provided by different vendors, which may add further complexity in managing a network system.
Application servers deployed in known network systems may generally know where their hosted content should be distributed. For example, an application server that hosts closed captioning content for a particular video segment may know the destination of its content to be the application server that aggregates audio, video and closed captioning content for that particular video segment. However, in these or other known network systems, the location of the destination might not be known, and an external controller may be queried to determine the destination location each time one application server attempts to transmit content to another application server.